How To Burn PS2 Games And Play Without A Mod Chip

For years, there was no easy solution to play burned PS2 games without a mod chip or using a hard drive. Fortunately, none of that is necessary anymore.

It’s now extremely easy to burn PS2 games that you can play without needing to mod your console at all using the FreeDVDBoot exploit.

Requirements

You only need the following three things to play burned PS2 discs without modding your console:

1. A compatible PS2 console (all PS2 slim models work)
2. A DVD (not a CD), preferably a DVD-R
3. A computer with a disc drive (you could buy an external disc drive)

Step 1: Download And Run The FreeDVDBoot Patcher

FreeDVDBoot is the recently-developed exploit that tricks your console into booting games without needing a mod chip. A patcher was developed that automatically modifies your game ISO files with the FreeDVDBoot exploit.

It’s easy to use and compatible with most PS2 consoles including all PS2 slim models. Just follow these steps:

1. Download the FreeDVDBoot Patcher from this PS2-home forum thread
2. Run the FDVDB_ESR_Patcher file
3. Select your game ISO file
4. Select the payload (only one is included for now)
5. Press “Path!”

After following those steps, your game ISO file should be patched and ready to be burned onto a DVD disc.

Step 2: Burn PS2 Games With ImgBurn

After you patched your game ISO file in step 1, you should be ready to burn your PS2 game. You can use the burning software of your choice if you are experienced with similar software. If not, you can follow these simple steps to burn your PS2 game with a program called ImgBurn.

1. Insert a blank DVD-R disc in your disc drive
2. Download and run ImgBurn
3. Click “write image file to disc”
4. Select your game under “source”
5. Set write speed to 4x
6. Burn!
7. Optional: check the “verify” box to ensure your disc was burned properly

Step 3: Play!

And that’s all there is to it. Assuming you followed the steps correctly, you’ll be ready to play some burned PS2 games! Your console will boot the burned game automatically as if they were genuine copies. If it doesn’t work for you, your PS2’s laser might be bad or you might have a PS2 console with an incompatible disc drive.

If you want to further explore the world of burned games, check out our guide on burning Sega Saturn games. And while you wait for your game to burn, you might as well pass the time by playing Solitaire at solitaire-masters.com.